Dirge Danorum

Chapter 24

Reaching Yantar might have been a happy event under different circumstances. Finding it more or less deserted might have been even happier. So much for that. It was a subdued group of stalkers that carried the bodies of the two sisters into the Yantar valley.

The perimeter didn't take much securing; Duty had occupied the compound throughout the Incursion, and they had locked up behind them. There were a few dogs to be run off, and some questionable egg sacks in the high grass near the walls, easily burned, but otherwise it seemed clear enough. It took some work to unseal the doors, but we got them open, mainly due to the Merc's inhuman strength.

The Biker and I watched as the two bodies were borne inside. Many other stalkers watched with us. The others that Velvet hadn't set to watch were already building fires. It was very dark now, and from beyond the walls we could hear a variety of howls and cries. This sector had been virtually unwalked since the Incursion; no one had a clue what was out there.

I followed Grigor inside, and the Biker came as well. As Freedom men with shotguns checked the compound room by room, the others laid out the two limp bodies in the laboratory. Velvet closed the door once the Biker and I were inside. It was just the Biker, myself, Velvet, the Merc, Exile, Grigor, and the sisters.

"Christ you're heavy," Exile said to Tyrian's still form. "What did you have for breakfast, an ironclad?"

The girl's eyes snapped open, and she tried to say something, but it came out a croak.

"Give her something to drink," Velvet said, leaning on the table and letting out a long sigh. So we'd pulled it off – or so it seemed. Russet sat up with some effort and worked her neck and shoulders; they both had to be pretty stiff by now. She opened her coat to reveal both Kevlar body armor and Clint Eastwood-style makeshift plate armor.

Of course we'd anticipated the attempt on their lives while we were in the open; it was the logical time to do it, and the deception with the masks could never have fooled a good sniper for long. Height difference, the way that women walk – we couldn't hide that, not really.

This didn't mean that we'd beaten the Dane. This was only round one. We'd bought time, but we weren't kidding anyone. Velvet was taking the threat absolutely seriously, and she had a plan to keep the sisters alive – but there were no guarantees, and we were all on edge.

It had been a tricky plot; the sisters had needed to actually get shot. Not everyone had been in on it; just us, and a couple of people outside this room.

"That wasn't so bad," Tyrian said, frowning. She meant the actual impact of the bullet. And when you have half an inch of steel protecting you, that's no surprise. Playing dead had been the hard part.

The snipers had been forced to take their shot from incredible distance – you can't get close to a group as big as ours and expect to walk away with your life. That was why it had been safe to assume they'd aim for the body, not the head. Headshots would be unreliable at those distances, and these shooters knew they'd only get one shot.

Whoever the Dane hired had been good; the shots had been perfectly timed, and both had been dead-on.

As the sisters shared the Merc's canteen, I looked around the room. So this would be Grigor's lab. It was old and rusty, just like everything else in the Zone, but surprisingly decent. We didn't hear any shotgun blasts, so it was safe to say the others hadn't found anything objectionable.

Here we were. Home sweet home. The sisters wouldn't leave this room tonight; the rest of Freedom wouldn't learn they were still alive until tomorrow. This would increase the amount of time we'd bought ourselves, and possibly give Velvet enough time to line up their departure from the Zone. Even after everyone knew they were alive, they still wouldn't be allowed to go outdoors. This building would be a prison for them until the day they left the Ukraine.

On the rest of us, there were no such restrictions. Unfortunately, we had a long night ahead of us.

You would think that getting here, and doing so more or less in one piece, we'd have taken a rest, maybe even celebrated the birth of Freedom's new HQ. Wrong. So wrong.

Velvet was open to the possibility of attack at any time; it was possible that Duty was mobilizing at this very moment to put Freedom down before it could even be up in the first place.

No, we didn't have time to rest or celebrate. We had to harden this position. And with forty men, and a great deal of equipment brought from Kevorich, that's what we did.

First there were the minefields; there were four gates leading into the compound, and a road for each of them. We posted signs that clearly indicated only the roads were safe, but planted no actual mines. Land mines are filthy weapons, and Velvet felt they were beneath any organization that aspired to the moral high ground – but the threat of land mines? Well, that was okay.

Next came the sharpened stakes. I know, I was surprised too – I mean, this wasn't the middle ages – but the bottom line is that whether you have guns or swords, if you're attacking a fortification, having a lot of pointy sticks stuck in the ground, pointed toward you makes it harder to do that. This wasn't a bluff.

There were still small barriers made of sandbags, left over from when Duty had occupied the compound. Velvet supervised the mounting of powerful machine guns, and the welding of shields to protect the stalkers who manned them.

Others worked with machetes to clear a patch of hard ground just outside the walls, where helicopters would be able to land. Velvet was going to be doing a thriving business with the outside world, and this was not a convenient location to reach overland – particularly with the cordon in mind. Her dealings would be conducted by air.

There was a large pile of sandbags on the roof of the main building, and Velvet set the sword there, hilt-upward, I guess as a sort of symbol. From far away it looked more like a cross than a sword, but it was pretty cool either way. She promised to get to work sewing a Freedom flag as soon as possible, but until then, the sword would have to do.

It had come from Kevorich; some weapon-dealer had insisted she take it as a symbol of what she was doing. The men who joined her weren't the only ones glad to see Freedom back in business.

She sent out scouts to map in detail the valley and its surroundings, which were no longer to be taken for granted since satellite coverage had gone down.

My job was helping with some of the less interesting things – like putting up the large tents that would ultimately become the barracks, canteen, and home to the base's trader.

Inside, others were making the inside of the compound more habitable. There was more than one night's work to be done in that department.

Occasional gunfire was audible as we worked. Sentries fired shots from their sidearms to frighten off whatever was in the tall grass. The Merc was posted on the roof, not far from the sword, and he used a bolt-action .223 with iron sights to pick off several of the creatures stalking our perimeter.

I could sense the life around the compound. There was a lot of it. Now there were two men on the roof, assembling the antennae for the new uplink. Velvet was everywhere at once, doing a fair amount of shouting. Some men were assembling a mounted gun in the wrong place, so she shouted at them. Tyrian appeared at the doorway to the compound, and Velvet shouted at her, too. Someone saw her, and the secret was out. As the word spread, joviality returned to the Freedom stalkers in force.

Our little makeshift band finished their tasks and started to play. The other stalkers sang along as they worked. Someone convinced Velvet to oversee dinner, and she grudgingly gave in. It turned out her cooking had a bit of a reputation in the Zone, and for good reason. I hadn't eaten so well since I'd been in the real world.